Benazir, Family’s 114 Acres: All bought while he helmed Rab and police

Former IGP Benazir Ahmed and his family members acquired almost all their land during his tenure as the chief of the police and Rab, according to property records listed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

ACC documents show that Benazir and his family bought 114 acres through 83 deeds. A total of 112 acres of that land were bought when Benazir served as the inspector general of police and the director general of the Rapid Action Battalion.

They purchased 63.97 acres via 50 deeds during Benazir’s tenure as the IGP from 2020 to 2022. Another 48.15 acres were bought through 27 deeds between 2016 and 2019 when he served as the Rab DG.

The ACC also found that Benazir’s family acquired 1.75 acres through five deeds in 2014 when he was the commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Most of the land was registered under his wife Jissan Mirza’s name.

On Thursday, Judge Mohammed Ash-Shams Joglul Hossain of the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka ordered the confiscation of the former IGP’s assets in connection with corruption allegations.

Following the order, Benazir’s 33 bank accounts will be frozen and properties listed under the 83 deeds will be confiscated, said court sources.

“Steps have been taken to send copies of the court order to those offices which would implement the order,” ACC Public Prosecutor Mahmud Hossain Jahangir told The Daily Star yesterday.

During the hearing on an ACC petition at the court on Thursday, the public prosecutor said Benazir is accused of amassing illegal assets, worth hundreds of crores of taka, at home and abroad, by abusing power, irregularities, and corruption. The properties were registered in his name and also in the names of his wife and three children.

Of the land in question, at least 81 acres were registered under Jissan’s name, 7.60 acres under Benazir’s name, and the remaining 26 acres under the names of his three daughters and some relatives.

The ACC did not specifically mention the properties owned by each of Benazir’s three daughters. The graft watchdog, however, found that a land over 13 acres was registered under the name of Farhin Rishta in Sahapur of Gopalganj, the hometown of the former IGP.

The ACC found that Benazir and his family purchased 97.86 acres in Gopalganj Sadar upazila, 0.47 acres in Tungipara, 11.49 acres in Kotalipara and 2.47 acres in Cox’s Bazar.

On some deeds, Jissan was named as the chairperson of Savanna Bangladesh, an orgnisation which owns a farm, a nature park, an eco-resort, a country club, and a venture named Southern Business Initiative.

Jissan was not known to have any profession during the tenure of her husband’s time in service. But Benazir in a video message later claimed that his wife and daughters own a farm.

Benazir was among the seven former and current Rab officials sanctioned by the United States in December 2021 for human rights violations.

Allegations of massive wealth accumulation through corruption and irregularities against Benazir surfaced recently after a national daily ran report.

The Daily Star could not reach Benazir for comments yesterday. He did not respond to several calls and texts.

In a Facebook video, Benazir claimed that the corruption allegations against him were false and fabricated.

On April 18, the ACC decided to launch an enquiry into the alleged corruption by the former IGP. The commission formed a three-member committee to conduct the investigation, ACC Secretary Khorsheda Yasmin told a press briefing on April 22.

The following day, the High Court directed the ACC to submit a progress report on the enquiry into the reported allegations against Benazir and his family members.

On May 23, the graft watchdog submitted a report to the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka and prayed for confiscation of the assets of Benazir and his family members.